Less than an hour after stepping out of the ring, still wearing the three-hour marks of a heavyweight, Dak Prescott had every right to take with him to the podium all the criticism leveled at him over the previous five days.
Instead, he went the other way.
“Let’s start with the interception,” Prescott told the assembled media room.
The 29-year-old quarterback then explained that he underestimated the length of Eagles edge rusher Josh Sweat, who hit Prescott’s pitch from close range and ran 42 yards to call. This happened less than six minutes into the game and put the Eagles up 10-0. It came on the heels of a 68-yard, seven-play field goal that Philadelphia reserve QB Gardner Minshew engineered to start the game.
It was also an interesting thing for Prescott to mention first, right after a career game at a very large venue at AT&T Stadium on Christmas Eve. And it’s indicative of where Dallas is now, as it stalks Philly and seeds in the NFC — the Cowboys’ best players aren’t just really, really good. They are responsible too, and you saw it this week after a win, just as you did a week ago after a crush loss to the Jaguars.
“I mean, Dak does what he wants, no matter what,” linebacker Micah Parsons told me over the phone as he was leaving the locker room after the game. “If you give him the racing game, he will accept the racing game. If you give him the passing game and the chance to throw it, he’ll throw it. We have one of the best quarterbacks in the league, and he just showed that here today.”
It showed more than just that.
The Cowboys, as a whole team, did too.
That 10-0 deficit? The pick-six? Learned from. Dealt with. compartmentalized. And Prescott was hardly the only star with a star on his helmet to show that kind of resilience and competitiveness on Saturday afternoon.
That’s why the Cowboys walked away with a 40-34 victory – and a different look about them than they’ve had for some time.
Dallas needed its best players to stand out; Lamb and Prescott answered the call.
Kevin Jairaj/USA TODAY Sports
Given the Christmas weekend schedule, we’re arriving a day early at Cowboys-Eagles. On Monday you will also have…
• How the Bengals showed their courage in the face of a meltdown.
• Why the Bills stayed an extra night in downtown Chicago.
• Where the Panthers revamped their identity.
• What will you do to get the Sunday Ticket in 2023.
• Who will you watch in the College Football Playoff.
But we’re kicking off this week’s MMQB column with a special Sunday morning release of our lead for Week 16, focusing on the big step the Cowboys appear to be taking.
There were a number of points of emphasis for the Cowboys’ defense this week, but the main theme for the group really was the same as for the offense. Just as Prescott and the offense yielded an overtime pick six for the Jaguars, the defense allowed Jacksonville to drive 41 yards and set up a field goal that forced overtime in just over a minute. So this week, players would be judged in low-chip situations.
Which is why, even though he wasn’t particularly happy with how it materialized, the hairs on the back of Dallas defensive coordinator Dan Quinn’s neck stood on end when he saw that his unit would have a chance to hold the line, when Minshew punted the ball at the Dallas 19 with 33 seconds left after a spectacular catch by DeVonta Smith for 22 yards and a first down.
“That was the moment I really hoped we would get to, because you can’t really say you’ve learned or improved until you’re in that moment again,” says Quinn. “And here we are tonight, in that moment again to close it. … Allowing a field goal late in regulation against Jacksonville really pissed us off to say, Hey, when you’ve got someone out there, you’ve got to take them into the deep water and finish them off.
“So I said, We won’t prove we made it until you’re in that moment again🇧🇷
And then, they proved it.
At second and 10, with 33 seconds left, Parsons came off the right edge, forcing Minshew up into the pocket where Dorance Armstrong Jr. was turning and breaking free, eventually raising his arms to force a high throw from Minshew. The ball, likewise, came too high for Smith, who was waiting for it deep in the end zone.
At third and 10, with 27 seconds left, Parsons misstep outside, then burst inside, going straight left to tackle Jordan Mailata and land in Minshew’s lap. The wily quarterback managed to get away, but Parsons gave chase and forced a throw out.
Then finally, on fourth and 10, Armstrong’s opening burst in the backfield knocked Minshew out of his seat and influenced a rushed, unhinged throw down the sideline to AJ Brown, who found himself in a Dallas staff meeting – no fewer than five Cowboys defenders were next to the Eagles star.
Now, here’s how the coaches actually saw the Cowboys respond to the bell: While Dallas faked pressure on that final snap by packing seven players to the line, on all three plays, the defense came up with a standard four-man run. Nothing fancy, nothing exotic. It was, more or less, Quinn telling his guys to beat the other guys, a good vote of confidence for those pass rushers when the “other guys” are the best offensive line in the NFL.
Dallas, in fact, brought no extra rushers, period, on the Eagles’ final possession.
“Yes, we had to be relentless,” says Parsons. “We had to become one of the best; nah, I mean, we’re one of the best D-lines in the world. And we had to show that here today in the endgame situation.”
Which only highlighted everything that had transpired in the previous three hours at AT&T Stadium.
Dallas’ defense forced Philadelphia’s offense to take long drives to come out with points.
Kevin Jairaj/USA TODAY Sports
As strange as it seems for a game in which the Cowboys’ defense gave up 27 points (seven of the Eagles’ points, again, came in the pick-six), that unit checked a lot of its boxes.
Tackling was a huge point of emphasis with all the movement and space the Eagles created, and Dallas’ ability to hold Philly to just 87 yards on 29 carries was proof that the message got through. Quinn and his players also wanted to limit explosive plays and force the Eagles to drive the field, and Philly needed seven, 10, 10, 10, and 13 plays on their five scoring drives, two of which ended in field goals.
And then there were the four twists. Two were picks where Jayron Kearse and DaRon Bland beat their boys at the ball. Another was Kearse being where he needed to be to recover a botched exchange between Minshew and Boston Scott. And the last one was spawned in the fourth quarter, with Dallas up just 37–34, and Philly starting a new possession, with Parsons creating havoc in the backfield and forward Carlos Watkins diving into the melee to punch Eagles star Miles’ free ball. Sanders.
“They ran in like a tackle play, they tried to get the ball out, they rubbed me and the ball was exposed,” says Parsons. “And our guy just came in and knocked him out from behind. What a great move – super great move. … I mean, the emphasis is the same every week, and that’s just getting the ball back. In some games the ball rolls towards you, sometimes not, but today the ball was choosing our direction. A hail to the football gods.”
But that wouldn’t mean much if Prescott and the Dallas offense couldn’t take advantage.
They would prove they could. And just as it was Parsons making plays on his side of the ball, it was Dallas’ best players making them on offense – namely Prescott and CeeDee Lamb (who finished with 10 receptions for 120 yards and two touchdowns).
Yes, Prescott played the pick-six. But doubling that one in, the first throw he made that hit the ground was the last of the first half. Outside of that miss and the interception, he was 16-of-16 for 168 yards and a touchdown, that being the 36-yard touchdown in which he found Lamb running open on a corner route through a dead spot in an Eagles zone.
The two goals he scored in the second half were even more impressive. On the first, he climbed to the left and found Michael Gallup running across the front of the end zone, right in his sight. This tied it at 27 late in the third quarter. Their next, a seven-yard penny on a corner fade to Lamb, tied it again at 34 and set the stage for the Cowboys to find out – to use Quinn’s phrase – whether they could swim in deep water, a week after d drowned. in him.
“Really, every defeat is a chance to learn and improve,” says Parsons. “Losing loved ones sucks, but there’s always something you can look at and learn from it.”
From there, at 34-34, and with less than six minutes remaining, Bland’s interception led to the go-ahead; Watkins’ punch led to another Brett Maher field goal to give the Cowboys a 40-34 lead. Prescott finished 27-of-35 for 347 yards and three scores, one interception and a 124.3 rating.
So, the defense closed things down. Which, above all, proved that the team had learned from the Jags game.
“I think when we saw the movie, similar things came up today, things we could do better, things that hurt us in the future,” says Parsons. “We fixed it today. And I’m super excited for the guys that we got to gut this one. Similar situation last week but we managed to finish this game so I’m glad we learned from our mistakes. 🇧🇷
“Just our heart, relentlessness and will to not give up, through the Texans [a last-minute win in Week 14]The Jags, this game, was close, but we’ve got to keep moving up into the playoffs and start playing our best football.
And that’s why, when this one ended, as much as it proved these Cowboys can be more resilient and tougher than some of their recent Dallas predecessors, there was still the sobering reminder that the Eagles remain two games more in the NFC. East. And that means with two weeks to go, the Cowboys will likely have to head into the playoffs to pursue their goals.
But it also kept Dallas’ eyes on the prize. So when I ask Parsons about winning this game, gaining ground in the East and avenging the Cowboys’ loss to Philadelphia in mid-October, really, he wasn’t having it. any from that.
“Nah, everything we do is for the trophy,” he responds quickly. “That’s what we’re thinking about. We are not concerned with rivalries. All we are thinking about is getting the trophy.”
Like everyone else on that front, the Cowboys have a long way to go.
But Saturday was a good step in that direction.
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